For 27 years, federal courts in the United States have exercised special oversight over custody conditions for migrant children. President Joe Biden's government wants a judge to temporarily remove those powers.
District Judge Dolly Gee will weigh the request at a hearing in Los Angeles on Friday, just a week before new standards go into effect that the government says meet, and in some ways exceed, standards set in a landmark agreement that led to named after Jenny Flores, a migrant girl from El Salvador.
The government is trying to end the Flores Agreement at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which assumes custody of children traveling alone after 72 hours of being arrested by the Border Patrol. It would remain in effect in the Border Patrol and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security.
District Judge Dolly Gee will weigh the request at a hearing in Los Angeles on Friday, just a week before new standards go into effect that the government says meet, and in some ways exceed, standards set in a landmark agreement that led to named after Jenny Flores, a migrant girl from El Salvador.
The government is trying to end the Flores Agreement at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which assumes custody of children traveling alone after 72 hours of being arrested by the Border Patrol. It would remain in effect in the Border Patrol and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security.
The Flores Agreement is a cornerstone of immigration policies: it obliges the United States to quickly return children who are detained to relatives living in the country, and to establish standards in authorized shelters, including for food, drinking water, supervision for adults, emergency medical services, toilets, sinks, temperature control and ventilation. It emerged after widespread allegations of mistreatment in the 1980s.
Court oversight gives activists representing migrant children broad authority to visit custody facilities and conduct interviews with staff and other migrants. They can complain to Gee, who can order changes.
Lawyers for migrant children strongly oppose the move to roll back court oversight, arguing in part that the federal government has been unable to develop a regulatory framework in states that have revoked the licenses of facilities that serve migrant children or could do so. in the future.
Texas and Florida — led by Republican governors opposed to unprecedented immigration flows — revoked licenses in 2021, leaving what activists say is a gap in oversight that puts children's safety at risk.
The Justice Department alleges that new rules that take effect July 1 make the Flores Agreement unnecessary in HHS facilities.
It says the department will require shelters to follow state licensing standards, even if they don't have one, and will increase site visits in those states to make sure they adhere to the guidelines.
Maintaining judicial oversight of the Department of Homeland Security would keep crucial parts of the Flores Agreement intact, including a 20-day limit on the detention of children traveling alone and parents traveling with a child. Border Patrol detention facilities have experienced extreme overcrowding; the most recent occasion was in 2021.